Delhi-born Vijay Sethi is world's best business educator

Beats three other finalists at a live 'teach-off' at London's Hult International Business School

Vijay Sethi, 52, professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), has been named the world’s best business educator by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

The information systems expert won the ‘Business Professor of the Year’ award, which includes a $100,000 prize, after beating three other professors in a live ‘teach-off’ at the Hult International Business School’s London campus yesterday. The four finalists were selected from among 222 professors nominated by about 30,000 students and alumni from 31 universities worldwide, Nanyang university said on its website.

The four finalists — Johanne Brunet from HEC Montreal, Darren Dahl from University of British Columbia, Kevin Kaiser from Insead, and Sethi — were picked by a panel headed by William Ridgers, The Economist’s business education editor.

For the title, the four finalists had 35 minutes each to deliver a lecture to a live classroom audience of undergraduate and graduate business students. Based on votes by the classroom audience, as well those by an online audience, Sethi emerged the winner.

Nominations were received from leading institutions such as Wharton School, Harvard Business School and London Business School.

The EIU award is the only global contest to recognise and reward excellence in business teaching.

The EIU award marks a double win for Sethi this week. On Tuesday, he had received the Nanyang Award for Excellence in Teaching, which recognises faculty members with excellent teaching practices.

NTU President Bertil Andersson said, “Vijay took on some of the best teachers in the world and came out on top. He has done both NTU and Singapore proud. The real winner in NTU’s success in attracting world beaters like Vijay is our student body, which is taught by the best in the world.”